Geriatric Pocohontas and Native American Pride

Tonight I was remembering when I was in college, and home for the summers when I would work in various nursing homes or with the mentally disabled. I loved working with those people and I have *oodles* of funny stories, but I was remembering one lady in particular tonight. Ida was quite old and although she had lost quite a bit of her mental sharpness, was still rather spritely. She was the sweetest lady and became one of my favorites. The odd thing about Ida was that mention of the word "Pocohontas" or anything having to do with "Indians", for some reason, would imply to Ida that you were referring to HER as "Indian" - to which she took great offense. I'm not sure if she was racist, or if she actually was partly Native American and for some reason was ashamed of it, but this is what I was told by my over-eager fellow employees. At the urging of my co-workers (a sort of new employee hazing I suppose) I casually brought up the Disney movie Pocohontas to another resident later that day. Needless to say, I was unprepared for hell's fury which poured from Ida's very core at the mere mention of this word.
"WHO ARE YOU CALL'N POCOHONTAS?" she roared as she --no lie--raised her wooden cane and began shaking it about as she came down upon me in the resident hallway.
"No one Ida - we were talking about the MOVIE Pocohontas!"
Not to be dissuaded, she continue to advance upon me with her cane swinging. "NOBODY CALLS ME POCOHONTAS! I AINT NO INDIAN! Who do you think you are?"
At this point in time, she was only about 4 feet away from me and I made one last ditch effort to appease her temper and as calmly as I could (and as quickly) try to diffuse the situation.
It didn't work.
And this, friends and readers, is the point in the story which I turned away from this 92 pound geriatric and her waving wooden sword and ran like heck down the hallway, the roar of laughter from my coworkers ringing in my ears.

Thankfully, she didn't give chase, and thankfully - she had forgotten the whole thing a prompt 10 minutes later.


Speaking of Native Americans - I apparently have some Native American in me. I'm not sure how much (Steve thinks I should find out so that I can cash in on Casino revenues), but my birth mother tells me that it's Blackfoot and I find that very interesting. Maybe at some point in my life I'll find the time to do one of those geneaology things and trace my roots. Right after I find the time to climb Mount Everest and run in the Tour de France. The town that I grew up in had an Indian Reservation, and a lot of "Indian" pride - the college mascot in town was the "Chips (Chippewas)" and I remember in college going with Steve to Native American PowWows in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids. I find Native American culture very beautiful and fascinating -- I'd love to have my camera in tow at a PowWow again, but they don't seem to be too popular down here in the south.
So....in keeping with my blog title, "Random Musings".....after my memories of Ida and Native American tidbits, here's a random painting. But it's not that random, because I actually really like it and searched it out for you to see. It's called "Visions of Yesterday" by William R. Leigh. Whenever I see it, I look at it a long time. Notice how he's wearing modern (jeans) and his native traditional attire and the expression on his face as he looks at the buffalo skull. It's hard to see in this size and resolution, but if you look closely, you can see a Buffalo Hunt in the clouds.
Anyway....I like art. And I like to look at paintings and think about them and listen to my heart as it decides what emotions a piece of art evokes. And I like this painting. Do you?